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It’s obvious that Zdeno Chara is going to be at the centre of this Stanley Cup final.

But does he also have to play centre? And must he be front and centre?

These were some of the intriguing questions emanating from Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final, along with those involving the non-suspendable lunching habits of Alex Burrows, the wanderings of Tim Thomas and whether the Vancouver Canucks and Boston Bruins might actually be able to produce something approaching big-time hockey entertainment at any point over the next 10 days or so.

Chara was a focal point of the strategic discussions in the hours following the Raffi Torres goal in the dying seconds — who gives up a winning goal that late in the NHL any more? — that gave the Canucks the series opener while the Bruins cursed the fates over a glorious opportunity lost.

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Chara played more minutes (28:09) than any other participant in the match and was on the ice when the winner went in, uncharacteristically sprawling in a failed attempt to stop Jannik Hansen from feeding the puck to Torres. Johnny Boychuk (on the ice for the last seven Boston goals against in these playoffs) may have given up the puck to Ryan Kesler to start the decisive play, but both Chara and then Thomas failed in their roles as last lines of defence to sink the visiting B’s.

Chara’s actions and involvement earlier in the game, meanwhile, generated much chatter, and will be a discussion point going in to Game 2 on Saturday.

He was high-sticked twice in the opening 21 minutes of play, incidents which gave the Bruins first a four-minute power play, and then one of the two-minute variety. On both occasions, Chara and his powerful shot were sent to the front of the Boston net to screen netminder Roberto Luongo and cause all manner of chaos. The B’s clearly got their hands on some game film from last year’s Vancouver-Chicago playoff series in which Dustin Byfuglien left Luongo dazed, distracted and bruised, and must have figured a taller version of Byfuglien — the 6-foot-9 Chara — would be twice as effective.

This isn’t, by the way, a strategy Boston coach Claude Julien has employed very often. The sense is it’s a little gimmicky for Julien, and in an ideal world he would probably rather see Milan Lucic or Nathan Horton effectively playing the role of Tomas Holmstrom than Chara.

In Game 1, using Chara in that manner didn’t work very well, or at least the Bruins didn’t score in 6:35 of power-play time — Chara was out there for 4:32 of it — and Luongo appeared anything but bothered or distracted.

Apparently, it’s a job that’s a little more complicated than just being tall.

Holmstrom is the best, Ryan Smyth another good one, a player who has troubled Thomas in the past when parked in front.

“He’s good at getting his stick in front of your face,” smiled Thomas. “It’s like garage hockey. My uncles were good at that.”

Chara also took a faceoff and won it, which was somewhat odd given that he hadn’t taken a draw this season or last, and took some heavy shots from Vancouver’s D-men, who twice knocked the big man to the ice. Given that the primary role of Chara in this series is to be the one delivering the punishment, primarily to Henrik and Daniel Sedin, this was a twist in the script.

“They were pretty hard on him,” said Julien. “But he kept getting back up.”

Instead of patrolling the back end, Chara was at the front, trying to untangle his 65-inch hockey stick quickly enough to deflect pucks or hack at rebounds, no easy task. Moving him from the point, meanwhile, doesn’t give him many chances to use his howitzer-like shot.

While the towering Slovak absorbed some punishment, Vancouver’s approach is not to physically confront Chara.

“At 6-foot-9, not many guys in the league can move (Chara),” said Vancouver blueliner Sami Salo. “Our focus is to try and leave him alone.”

Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault said seeing the Bruins use Chara in front of the net in power-play situations against Tampa Bay in the Eastern Conference final — without success — alerted his staff to the possibility.

“He’s such a big body there’s no sense getting into a pushing match with him,” said Vigneault. “(Luongo) can’t look over top of (Chara) so he’s got to look around him and find the pucks.”

Whether the strategy will pay off for Boston, or makes sense, is debatable. But with one power-play goal on the road all playoffs, Julien has to try something.

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